Is Your One Eyebrow Better Than The Other?

There's a famous adage in eyebrow makeup that goes something like this: "Eyebrows are sisters, not twins."

And then there's the lesser known: "Sisters? Mine are more like distant cousins."

When I started to seriously dabble in makeup about four years ago, I didn't pay much attention to the brow department. But then the big, bold eyebrows phenomenon made a grand entrance and "natural eyebrows" became fashionable, which made me go, "Dang, I need to learn to do my eyebrows now."

That was when I fully realised that my eyebrows are like two separate entities.

Dramatic exaggerations aside, my eyebrows are definitely not twins. My right eyebrow used to be my favourite (is it weird to have a favourite brow?) but somehow, throughout the course of my makeup-awareness years that were filled with eyebrow-grooming sessions, my left eyebrow has become the better-looking eyebrow. No matter how many hours I clocked in for my eyebrows, I can't make my them grow the way I want to—that is, for the hairs to grow in the same spot and in the same direction. They just don't want to play twinsies.

The best solution, therefore, is to draw them in. Sure, I could just comb them up a little and leave them be but there's no satisfaction like catching your reflection in a mirror or a reflective glass and seeing your eyebrows behaving beautifully, is there?

What I do: I would line the shape of the "inferior" brow (in my case, the right one) using MAC eyebrow pencil in Spiked, all the while trying my best to mimic the shape of the better eyebrow (the left one); I find that the arch on my left eyebrow is higher and is in a better position than the right's arch (I'm getting serious, guys) so I try to copy that arch onto my right eyebrow. Then all that's left to do is to fill it in.

Right eyebrow, drawn!

When I'm satisfied, I'd just move on to my better brow.

The whole point of my post is actually this: since my left eyebrow is more willing to compromise than the right one, I always draw the right one first - deal with the difficult side first!

It's like doing cat-eye liners; say you've drawn a perfect flicked line on the right lid. You're like, "OK, one done, one to go!", so you start drawing the left liner. OK, you're done—but wait a minute, is the left one thicker than the right one? Oh, right, now let's just make the right one a liiiiitle bit thicker... OK. Oh no, is the right one now more flicked than the left? Now you have to fix your left flick.

And then it becomes a cycle, and the next thing you know, you have two black caterpillars on your lids and you're like "I can't go out of the house looking like that" so you wipe them off with a makeup wipe (effectively wiping off some foundation and undereye concealer) and you have to start the process all over again.

How. Very. Annoying. Am I right or am I right?

I'm so much better at drawing a line on my right lid, so starting with my left lid - the more difficult side - would save time and energy; I'd just copy the shape of the left liner onto my right lid.

I apply this cat-eye liner concept to my eyebrows and so far it's going well. Eyebrows for me are like cat-eye liners: time-consuming and never perfectly done.

8 comments

I think both of your eyebrows look great! I know what you mean though, I have a favorite eyebrow too :) I wish the natural thick brows were in style when I was younger, growing them out again isn't fun. Anyway I like the way you do yours, they winged liner analogy is just perfect, haha.

I wish for the same thing too actually; I wouldn't have threaded my eyebrows so often, or maybe not at all, if thick eyebrows were "in" back then. Growing them out has definitely been difficult. Ah well, we just have to make do with eyebrow products I guess.

Haha! I love this post!! And yes, my eyebrows are definitely sisters. I am loving the full brow moment for sure. For me, it means I actually barely tweeze. I have always loved my full brows and now I get to "fully" embrace them. Now I just wish my left arch wasn't so pronounced, but I like this analogy so much, you've helped me come to appreciate the sisters!